Strictly chaos as Lindy hop group dance scoring confuses judges

The Strictly Come Dancing judges were left baffled following a technical glitch as they tried to give points to the contestants for a group routine.

The seven remaining couples faced the dance floor at the same time for a Lindy hop-a-thon, each performing a different Lindy hop routine in a bid to win more points.

But as the judges prepared to give their scores from a tablet, head judge Shirley Ballas made a number of errors as the “board went berserk” and had to read them from a sheet of paper.

She first announced Ashley Roberts and Pasha Kovalev had come first, before she was corrected and told to start from the bottom.

Lauren Steadman and AJ Pritchard were revealed to have come in seventh place, with Graeme Swann and Oti Mabuse in sixth.

Ballas told Charles Venn and Karen Clifton they were in fifth place, but said “Charles and Dianne”, much to their confusion.

Following a few more blunders, host Claudia Winkleman joked to the audience: “If you are watching at home, goodness have a drink.”

A tweet from the show’s official account read “BEAR WITH US. WE’VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE PEOPLE”, along with a laughing emoji.

The episode saw Roberts drop four points for her main routine after receiving a perfect score of 40 during the show’s Blackpool performances last weekend.

The former Pussycat Doll and Kovalev danced a samba to Hot Hot Hot by Arrow.

Bruno Tonioli told Roberts her hips were “criminally good” and were “lethal weapons” in the samba, but Craig Revel Horwood, Ballas and Dame Darcey Bussell pointed out slight flaws in her performance.

Revel Horwood said: “I felt you hit it a little too hard, it became a little bit staccato, in this dance your body needs to keep moving all the way through it, but what you lack in technique you certainly make up for in performance.”

Dame Darcey said it “started brilliantly” and was a “full routine”, but added: “I’m on Craig’s side, I would have loved a bit more bounce and softness.”

However, combined with an extra seven points for winning the Lindy hop-a-thon, the couple had an overall score of 43 – putting them in joint second place with Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton on the leaderboard.

Steps star Faye Tozer was given glowing praise from the judges for her waltz to See The Day by Dee C Lee with Giovanni Pernice.

They were given 39 points for what Tonioli described as an “immaculate, upper-class waltz”, and topped the leaderboard overall on 45 after gaining six points for the Lindy hop routine.

At risk of elimination this week are Paralympian Steadman and former cricketer Swann, who are at the bottom of the leaderboard with 24 and 26 points respectively.

Strictly Come Dancing’s results show airs on BBC One on Sunday at 7.20pm.